Attracted by the abundant supply of lignite coal as a power supply, Alcoa builds a smelting plant southwest of Rockdale in 1952. This was the first aluminum smelting plant to use lignite as a fuel for generating electric power.
The smelting plant, capable of producing 1.67 million pounds of aluminum per day, is the largest primary aluminum smelting operation in the United States.
Rockdale Operations comprises 35,000 acres for the integrated operations of mining, power generation and aluminum smelting.
Produced at Rockdale Operations are:
- Sheet ingots, weighing 40,000 pounds each. These are shipped to fabricating plants to be formed into plate sheet and foil.
- Primary ingots or "pig" which is sold for remelting.
- Aluminum powder, used for a variety of chemical and commercial applications, including cosmetics, paint, and as a component in solid rocket propellants for NASA.
Rockdale Operations is the sole supplier of aluminum powder, a major component in the fuel for the solid rocket boosters, to the NASA Space Shuttle program. Each Shuttle launch burns approximately 375,000 pounds of Rockdale aluminum powder in just two minutes, generating 5.2 million pounds of thrust, equivalent to 32 Boeing 747s at full takeoff power.
Construction of the Rockdale Atomizer to produce aluminum powder began in 1966.
The Rockdale Atomizer can consistently and economically produce more than 200 grades of high quality fine atomized aluminum powder.
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Journey to the Stars
The NASA Space Shuttle program relies on Rockdale Operations as its sole provider of aluminum powder that is critical to solid rocket propellants.
Rockdale smelter construction began in 1952.
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